Poppet, her daddy and I moved a little over two years ago. We had to leave our church family whom we had known and loved for 4 years. We have visited several churches within our new area, and the one the Lord has led me to has a very small, but very active congregation. Here is my question...... Poppet is usually the only child there, and loves sitting with the adults. Since I teach her Bible lessons at home, should I be feeling like she's missing out on the whole "Sunday school" experience?
Sunday School is a good thing. But, sometimes I feel like churches go overboard to come up with things to occupy the kids while the parents have "church". I think it's great if Poppet is willing to sit in with the adults and actually enjoys it. I'm sure she's learning! If you're teaching her Bible things at home, she should be just fine. As long as she's not complaining about missing out on the Sunday School experience, I wouldn't worry one bit about it. It's hard to find a new church where you're all happy and feel like you fit in. If you've found one, enjoy!
I'm with Heidi!!! Sunday School is great for kids that have no church training at home, but there is just about NOTHING my kids get in Sunday School that they don't "already know". It reinforces my kids, not teaches them. I believe that children need to "learn" to listen to the sermons, and it sounds as if your little Poppet is well on her way to doing that. It is amazing how much she might be picking up without anyone being aware of it! AWANAS, on the other hand, is absolutely essential to my kids. It presents the Bible in a very organized way, with memorization to back up the concepts. I would be very hard pressed to find a Bible curriculum that does as good a job.
"Church" should serve the primary purpose of fellowshipping, IMHO, since we are all to be instructing our children day and night. Not that the sermon isn't important, too, but if that was the most important thing, we could all pick a TV pastor and call it quits :wink: . We are actually beginning to rethink our stance on Awana. For dd it is wonderful, but for ds, who prefers to not "compete" and be pressured to finish certain things at certain times, the Awana format isn't ideal. He prefers to learn and read with us, and he still memorizes scripture that way....so as long as the end result is the same, we are thinking of taking the road less traveled :lol: .
If she's able to sit and listen to the sermon and be with adults - hats off to you. Sunday school (IMHO) is somethng that should expand on what is being taught at home and for the child who does not get that teaching at home, it's a great program for them. I don't think it's the be all that ends all. I'm with Jackie on the AWANA ministry (who would have believed it :lol: That is the one program the boys will not miss during the year and an expansion of what they learn at home - although I also agree with Brooke - some children need more time to get the work done and I think they should work with it but I won't venture down that road right now. :wink: Brenda
Yes. One of the reasons we homeschool is because there's no one curriculum that is BEST for EVERY child, and that includes AWANAS. We look at individual kids, and conform the curriculum to meet the child, not the child to meet the curriculum!
It's not the curriculum that would need tweaked...he is an advanced reader and remembers the scripture the first time....it is the competitive nature of the Awana night and scripture memory that is the problem.....Awana would need to be, well....not Awana for him to thrive :wink: . :lol:
Poppet can follow the sermon and behaves herself properly (most of the time :roll. I guess the main thing for me to remember is that the Lord is there even if other kids aren't ! *Um..... what is AWANA ?*
AWANA is a Wednesday night program for children. (well Wed. for us) They have books for the children to work through, learning Bible verses and such things. All my chldren go and really enjoy it. I know there was a conversation here not too long ago where some felt AWANA was too competitive. I persoanlly havent felt that at my church. The children wear vests and earn patches for their vests. I use the AWANA book and program for our Bible at home. To comment on Poppet sitting with your during the sermon I think that is a personal choice. I have been known to let one of my children sit with me from time to time. I dont encourage it only because our church has a childrens program with lots of kids. I feel like my child gets more out of being in their class then mine. Depending on which of my children is sitting out in "big" church with me, it can also be distracting - for me. Being in a different situation where there might not be any other children I would do the same thing you are doing.
AWANA - here I go again AWANA... Oh my! It is a children's ministry that runs from ages 3 through to grade 12. It's goal is to reach boys and girls with the Gospel of Christ and train them to serve Him. Cubbies is the pre-school group - they learned a condensed version of a verse, sing songs, play games, do crafts and have a lot of fun. They have two handbooks (Hopper and Jumper). they usually work together in the same book for the full year so that each child is together as opposed to working in two books with different children - it seems to be easier that way. Sparks is the K-2 group (a wildly energetic group from my experience). They do similar things there except that they work on full version verses. They have three handbooks and for the really keen child, three workbooks that correlate with each of the handbooks (Skipper, Hiker Climber) - the books are levelled to the public school grade system (Skipper - Kindergarten Hiker, grade 1 and climber grade 2). No matter what grade the child is in when they start in Sparks they start in the skipper book and work their way up (ie when our Andrew started in Sparks, he was in grade two - he had to start in the skipper book but because it was 'easier' material (geared for the child in K, he quickly progressed and finished all three books in one year). Truth & Training is the grades 3-6 ministry. Same idea and before - four handbooks; one for each year. They start on book one and progress through them - these books do get a little harder as the child progresses. JV (7- eight) and Varsity (9-12) are the youth ministry programs - I don't know a lot about them - we don't have those levels (YET) but I'm, working on it :wink: I love the ministry (can you tell). I soend the better part of the September to May period working on AWANA stuff - that's another place where my heart is. If you go to http://www.awana.org you can find a wealth of information about the ministry and if you're interested you will be able to find a local church who offers the ministry and if you so choose - they'd welcome you with open arms. Ok OK I've rambled enough. It's an awesome ministry - check it out! Brenda
I should make it clear that I don't think there is anything wrong with competition. But my ds is just not competitive when it comes to scripture memory. I remember in Sparks he almost didn't finish one of his books and his teacher told me that it was becuase every time there was a new kid my son would rather help them than do his own sections...which I can't fault him for that! So, overall, ds just doesn't thrive in that environment and probably never will. He might choose to go anyway, not sure yet, but I doubt he will get his books done. :lol:
Im gonna go out on a limb here, so forgive me ladies for sounding like I disagree, but I will always put my son in Sunday School until he is old enough to actually "learn" what is going on in church service and follow along with the pastor. I don't know how old Poppet is, but my Tanner is only 3. He learns about the Bible and teachings at home, but I believe he is way too young to understand what the pastor is trying to convey. Yes, I do believe that it teaches a valuable lesson to be respectful and sit nicely in church. I will agree with that. It's a good teaching tool to get them use to sitting and listening to the sermon and teaches them to respect Gods house. But my purpose for taking Tanner to church is to get him to learn about the Bible and be brought up in that environment, and I believe he will not benefit from the "cognitive" learning of the Bible from sitting with us in service. I think he benefits from all sides being in Sunday School with children his own age.
Brenda, where my girls go there is no AWANAS for the older kids, either. But I spoke with the Commander, and there ARE kids that chose to go on. The Commander will order the books for them, and then the kids are more or less on their own to learn the material. The Commander, I believe, will take the time to "listen to verses" and sign them off, and the few kids that do it are recognized at the same time as the other Clubbers are at the end of the year. You might want to check to see if your children can continue on this way. I'm planning on having Rachael continue after this year. Rumpledoodles, the books also follow a particular sequence, so that's another reason why you start at the beginning, regardless of what grade you're in when you start. Brooke, it's OK for you not to like the competitivness! Each kid learns differently, and if he memorizes best without the pressure of competition, then that's the way to go for him. Ours isn't TOO competitive, but I DO admit I was frustrated trying to get Faythe to finish book one by the end of her first year. Sigh.... So yes, I do get caught up in it, too!
I was driven by academic competition for over half my life--I know exactly what you mean by trying to "help them" get it done! But when ds sees the goal as "get it done" rather than hiding God's Word in his heart, something kinda clicked in my head :idea: ....things done quickly with the wrong motive won't be retained as well as if they have a greater purpose to the memorization, like meditation. I know our old church would make sure that the child understood what they were memorizing, but our new church doesn't talk at all during handbook time...it's just "say it and sign it". They even let the kids say each verse separately and practice the next one and as long as they say all of that section over the course of the night it will be passed. It really gives the wrong message, or at least a different message than what I want to give about memorizing God's Word. Each church is different. I suppose a parent needs to evaluate their individual situation and discern for their family about Awana, or Sunday School, for that matter.
My Rachael is one to memorize quickly. For a while in Sparkies she was waiting until the last moment, and then trying to memorize in the car going over. One day, it didn't work!!! The guy listened a bit, and then told her to work on them again next week! I was thrilled when I heard that, and actually thanked him for not letting her sneak past! We also had a "special needs" kid who really couldn't memorize very well, but worked hard on his verses anyway. The guy who listened to him say his verses would ask him questions, and pass him because there was retention of the meaning, not because he had it word-perfect. Maybe it didn't keep the "letter of the law", but it DID keep the "spirit of the law", which is so much more important!
Thanks for enlightening me . I had no clue :lol: ! We do not have that in our church. Is it related to a specific denomination by chance?
Good point Brooke. I wouldn't be sending Tanner into Sunday School if I didn't like their programing and people. That makes all the difference. I think it also depends on the child as well (of course). My son doesn't quite know the meaning of whispering or quite in church yet. It would just be annoying to everyone around him to keep him with us. If he sat better and was more quite, I would consider it when he is older, but still not at his young age. For my husband and I, it's more a distraction from our learning than anything else. We have AWANA too. They go all out for it and the kids have so much fun. We go to a Bible Church, so we don't have a denomination, per say, but I am unsure to if it stemmed from one.
It doesn't go specifically with one denomination or another but I do think there are a lot fo Baptist churches using it - I think I read some where they even use it in Anglican, Catholic, United Lutheran churches - just to name a few (but don't quote me on that). It is advertised as being non-denominational... Brenda
AWANAS is officially Baptist, and until fairly recently ONLY Baptist churches could have the program. I know, because the church I was attending at the time wanted to start a program, and was told that we couldn't. Since then, there have been non-Baptist churches running the program. Keep in mind, though, that IS written from a Baptist point of view...if you have trouble with Baptist doctrine in any area, you will want to preview what it says and be willing to back up YOUR views scripturally, at least with your children. We did do that in one particular area with our daughter. DH said it wasn't so much what it SAID, as what it DIDN'T say in that area!
